Mike Tolson

Sr. Reporter, Houston Chronicle

About this Author

Mike Tolson has been a journalist for more than 30 years and has worked for five newspapers, four of them in Texas. Although most of his career has been spent as a news reporter, he also wrote for features and sports sections in earlier years, and he was the city columnist for four years at the San Antonio Light.

At the Houston Chronicle, he has specialized in long-term projects and long-form weekend articles, while also handling daily reporting duties.

As a general assignments reporter, Tolson has written articles on just about every subject imaginable over the course of his career. However, he has specialized knowledge of civil and criminal justice matters.

A Georgia native, Tolson moved to Texas in 1964 and graduated from The University of Texas in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He has lived in Texas' three major cities as well as Austin, Abilene and Temple. He is married and has two children.

Awards & Recognition

Tolson has been honored with numerous awards during his career. He is a repeat winner of annual Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and Texas Headliners Foundation writing contests and is a three-time winner of the Texas Institute of Letters' Stanley Walker Award for the best narrative journalism writing in the state. Among the categories in which he has received recognition are enterprise, features, breaking news, sports and column writing. He also received a national education writing award for a special project on legislative reform of Texas school financing laws.